AMONGST THE HEATHER AND GORSE. 23 



its burnished golden blossoms gaily decorate many 

 an otherwise barren waste. Much rough land 

 in the neighbourhood of the moors is densely 

 clothed with gorse ; many of the downs, especially 

 along the south coast between Teignmouth and 

 Plymouth, the railway embankments and cuttings, 

 and the steep sides of numberless " coombes " or 

 valleys, are dotted with gorse coverts and thickets 

 in abundance. Particularly fine coverts of this 

 description may be found here and there along the 

 shores of Tor Bay, and on the sides of some of the 

 sheltered coombes running inland; whilst a con- 

 siderable portion of the downs comprising the 

 noble headland of Berry Head is clothed with a 

 dense growth of this prickly shrub. These gorse 

 coverts are a favourite haunt of bird-life. The 

 cover they afford is warm and dense, and so 

 impenetrable to enemies of all kinds as to be 

 absolutely safe. We have often remarked the 

 proneness of most gorse-frequenting species to 

 perch on the topmost twigs, to sit and sing and 

 sun themselves, and as it were court observation, 

 as if fully conscious of their ability instantly to 

 elude pursuit by dropping into the spine-decked 

 shrubs below. In Devonshire one of the most 



